You don't have to smile for E-ZPass cameras

DOVER — You might not see them, but the upgraded E-ZPass toll cameras almost certainly see you. They're also capturing a digital image of every vehicle that passes through the E-ZPass lanes.

By Casey Conleycconley@fosters.com

DOVER — You might not see them, but the upgraded E-ZPass toll cameras almost certainly see you.

They're also capturing a digital image of every vehicle that passes through the E-ZPass lanes.

The new cameras installed at toll plazas across New Hampshire — including the Spaulding Turnpike in Dover and Rochester — are part of a $7.2 million E-ZPass system upgrade, state transportation officials said. The devices have brighter, more visible LED flashes, and are aimed directly at front and rear license plates.

“The cameras are for violation enforcement, and the cameras are triggered for each vehicle and only take a photo of the license plate area,” N.H. Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton said. “Once the system reads a valid transponder as the vehicle moves through the toll plaza, the image is deleted.”

That whole process, he said, takes a few seconds.

However, the system is capable of storing pictures of vehicles that use the lanes without an E-ZPass transponder or in situations when the transponder isn't read.

In those cases, the image “is retained and processed by our back office vendor, where an invoice for the toll and a nominal processing fee is mailed to the vehicle's owner,” Boynton said.

“State law prevents, and the cameras do not take, an image of the persons in the vehicle. Only the license plate area is captured,” he said. “State law maintains confidentiality of the data captured by the E-ZPass equipment and limits its use for the 'sole purpose of administering the electronic toll collection system.'”

The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, which this week helped defeat a proposal in the N.H. House of Representatives that would have allowed automatic license plate readers on police cruisers, said privacy safeguards are built into the E-ZPass law.

Even so, the agency said it would continue to monitor how the new toll equipment is used, Executive Director Devon Chaffee said.

“I think we need to be cognizant of what information is being gathered, how long it is being stored and what its being used for,” Chaffee said. “That is something we will continue to be watching.”

The new systems have been installed in E-ZPass toll lanes within the last two months. They feature a better violation detection system and also upgraded technology that ensure vehicles that pass through the tolls match the vehicle assigned to that transponder.

For now, the cameras are only installed in E-ZPass lanes, Boynton said. They will be added to the cash lanes during a subsequent phase of the work.